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From the Publisher's
Corner
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Capital Punishment
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By Sal Osio, JD
When we execute
an innocent man, we must collectively share the blame and guilt
for his death, state sanctioned murder. “L.A. County
led the U.S.
in capital sentences in 2009. Prosecutors are being overzealous
and inhumane …The cost, of course, isn't the best reason to end
the death penalty -- it's that an imperfect justice system
cannot provide 100% certainty of guilt, making us all guilty of
state-sanctioned murder when the courts get it wrong. That's why
most developed nations have done away with capital punishment.
In that context, L.A.
prosecutors aren't just being overzealous, they're being
inhumane” – Los Angeles Times, Editorial, April 8, 2010.
Critics of Steve Cooley, the Los
Angeles County District Attorney are concerned that in his quest
for higher office (he seeks to become
California’s Attorney General) he is
pandering to ‘law and order’ constituencies and the all-powerful
prison guard’s union funding sources, at the expense of justice.
If so, he is following the same path that universally is pursued
by other politically ambitious DA’s throughout the country.
An estimated 2/3ds
majority of the
U.S.
electorate support capital punishment; less if the alterative is
life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. This
popular choice defies logic: Capital punishment is not a
deterrent; it is the last choice of law enforcement; the cost is
prohibitive; social welfare programs are curtailed to support
the death sentence; it is morally wrong; innocents are being
executed … The only explanation for the American majority view
is the flaw in democracy: Fear and ignorance. The politics of
fear are manipulated by the political elite in order to gain
political office and retain their power status.
The American Civil Liberties Union
report on the ‘Death Penalty’ -
www.aclunc.org/deathpenalty
- “The increase in death sentences in 2009 was most
stark in Los
Angeles County.
With 13 death sentences, Los Angeles County sent more people to death row in 2009 than any
year this decade—more than the entire state of Texas last year. Los Angeles has now become the leading death
penalty county in the country.”
“As the death penalty becomes marginalized to a smaller
and smaller portion of California, the
inequalities and lack of fairness in the system increase. County
level District Attorneys have full discretion to decide whether
to pursue the death penalty or the alternative punishment of
permanent imprisonment.” ACLU (supra) And,” Death penalty cases
can take up to 25 years to complete and spending has reached
$137 million per year. The money now spent by the state on the
700 people on death row could provide health care for more than
one million children in the Healthy Families program.”
California Hispanic community leaders, myself included,
have expressed concern to the offices of the DA’s in
Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino
counties, who collectively account for
83 % of California’s death sentences in 2009, based
on the alarming increase of Latino capital sentences. “The
number of Latinos on death row has historically been well below
the number of Latinos in the California population. In
2000, Latinos were 19 percent of the death row population but 33
percent of the people living in
California. What is driving this
increase cannot be determined at the moment. For a state with a
growing Latino population this development is worrisome. The
increasing number of Latinos sentenced to death raises questions
about the choices made by District Attorneys in charging death
penalty cases, and the composition of juries in these cases.”-
ACLU (supra)
The death penalty
is the ultimate denial of civil liberties. As of 2009, 139
inmates were found to be innocent and released from death row.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/
By
Sal Osio, JD